A fascinating tour of particle physics from Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman. At the root of particle physics is an invincible sense of curiosity. Leon Lederman embraces this spirit of inquiry as he moves from the Greeks' earliest scientific observations to Einstein and beyond to chart this unique arm of scientific study. His survey concludes with the Higgs boson, nicknamed the God Particle, which scientists hypothesize will help unlock the last secrets of the subatomic universe, quarks and all--it's the dogged pursuit of this almost mystical entity that inspires Lederman's witty and accessible history.
Two leading physicists discuss the importance of the Higgs Boson, the future of particle physics, and the mysteries of the universe yet to be unraveled. On July 4, 2012, the long-sought Higgs Boson--aka "the God Particle"--was discovered at the world's largest particle accelerator, the LHC, in Geneva, Switzerland. On March 14, 2013, physicists at CERN confirmed it. This elusive subatomic particle forms a field that permeates the entire universe, creating the masses of the elementary particles that are the basic building blocks of everything in the known world--from viruses to elephants, from atoms to quasars. Starting where Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman's bestseller The God Particle left off, this incisive new book explains what's next. Lederman and Hill discuss key questions that will occupy physicists for years to come:* Why were scientists convinced that something like the "God Particle" had to exist?* What new particles, forces, and laws of physics lie beyond the "God Particle"?* What powerful new accelerators are now needed for the US to recapture a leadership role in science and to reach "beyond the God Particle," such as Fermilab's planned Project-X and the Muon Collider? Using thoughtful, witty, everyday language, the authors show how all of these intriguing questions are leading scientists ever deeper into the fabric of nature. Readers of The God Particle will not want to miss this important sequel.
The Higgs Boson: Searching for the God Particle by the Editors of Scientific American Updated 2017 Edition! For the fifth anniversary of one of the biggest discoveries in physics, we’ve updated this eBook to include our continuing analysis of the discovery, of the questions it answers and those it raises. As the old adage goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there is effect, there must be cause. The planet Neptune was found in 1846 because the mathematics of Newton's laws, when applied to the orbit of Uranus, said some massive body had to be there. Astronomers eventually found it, using the best telescopes available to peer into the sky. This same logic is applied to the search for the Higgs boson. One consequence of the prevailing theory of physics, called the Standard Model, is that there has to be some field that gives particles their particular masses. With that there has to be a corresponding particle, made by creating waves in the field, and this is the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle. This eBook chronicles the search – and demonstrates the power of a good theory. Based on the Standard Model, physicists believed something had to be there, but it wasn't until the Large Hadron Collider was built that anyone could see evidence of the Higgs – and finally in July 2012, they did. A Higgs-like particle was found near the energies scientists expected to find it. Now, armed with better evidence and better questions, the scientific process continues. This eBook gathers the best reporting and analysis from Scientific American to explain that process – the theories, the search, the ongoing questions. In essence, everything you need to know to separate Higgs from hype.
The biggest science story of our time, Massive spans four decades weaving together the personal stories and intense rivalry behind the search for the 'God' particle or Higgs boson - the particle that gives mass (or weight) to all things.
"The Higgs boson ... is the key to understanding why mass exists and how atoms are possible. After billions of dollars and decades of effort by more than six thousand researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland--a doorway is opening into the mind-boggling world of dark matter and beyond. Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll explains both the importance of the Higgs boson and the ultimately human story behind the greatest scientific achievement of our time"--Publisher
We may be started by God's presence in unexpected places and in Unsuspecting Moments The expansion of human knowledge that springs from the inquiries of science can become a profound resource for our faith traditions. We need not choose between faith and reason as the rejection of reason often leads to a failure of faith. The high calling of the scientific community is to bring the realities of our universe into sharper focus. Our faith traditions enable us to discern meaning and understanding in our lives that cannot be realized by examining facts alone. Both the knowledge we are gaining from science along with the deep insights that we gain from our faith stories provide light and encouragement for navigating our human journeys. The hope and compassion and embodiments of grace that we experience within our communities of faith and the new knowledge we discovered through explorations of our world, such as the now-famous discovery of the "god particle," can come together to lead us toward a better understanding of ourselves and our world. We are learning that the universe, including ourselves, is a constellation of creative interdependence. There are no isolated entities in the world, including our individual lives. The solitary individual is a fiction. Our relational lives are central to our being. A sustainable faith should engage our minds as a critical resource for sound belief. Every believer can become a thoughtful believer and every thoughtful person can find hope and insight for living from our stories of faith. Thinking and believing work together to enable us to live more fully enlightened lives. Book jacket.
Dubbed the "God particle" by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, the Higgs boson is a hypothetical particle which, like divinity, is all pervading but undetectable. Scientists around the world race to find this clandestine particle. This book is about a different quest to find a different particle. This too is all-pervasive and totally clandestine. By revisiting the key experiments of the past, those that have shaped physics as we know it today, and re-assessing them in the light of a new theory based on a prime particle, we confirm the existence of the elusive God Particle. It's a particle belonging to an as yet undreamed of class of matter, many orders of magnitude smaller than anything we have even imagined. The theory based on this particle ultimately leads to an overarching but simple proposition that all of the phenomena of nature can be described in terms of one particle, one force and one law.
This book examines the most cutting-edge scientific discoveries of our time, including the confirmation of the Higgs boson particle (or field) which has been described as more notable and important than Einsteins Theory of Relativity. The Higgs boson discovery highlights that entity, also referred to as the God Particle, which controls roving particles of energy to become the building blocks of the atom by forming the neutrons, electrons, protons and other components of the atoms which collect to become everything in existence. Our first impulse tends to be that all of this is too difficult to understand, but its not. While scientists now confess bewilderment at what they are discovering, they confirm that it is all true. This book assembles and provides to the average reader these mindboggling discoveries in a manner that allows them to come to know and understand the process of creation of all things, including humans. This pursuit was undertaken by the author acting as investigator and examiner of the evidence presented by scientists. This leads the reader to a conclusion as to whether or not the apparent instructions imbedded into the Higgs boson particle, and the atoms it creates, along with all matter coming into existence, are the products of intelligent design or, on the other hand, occur by accident (Big Bang). Readers are informed and highly enlightened regarding the components and workings of the universe, Earth and human origins.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic story of the greatest quest in all of science—the holy grail of physics that would explain the creation of the universe—from renowned theoretical physicist and author of The Future of the Mind and The Future of Humanity. When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories. But perhaps the ultimate challenge is achieving a monumental synthesis of the two remaining theories—relativity and the quantum theory. This would be the crowning achievement of science, a profound merging of all the forces of nature into one beautiful, magnificent equation to unlock the deepest mysteries in science: What happened before the Big Bang? What lies on the other side of a black hole? Are there other universes and dimensions? Is time travel possible? Why are we here? Kaku also explains the intense controversy swirling around this theory, with Nobel laureates taking opposite sides on this vital question. It is a captivating, gripping story; what’s at stake is nothing less than our conception of the universe. Written with Kaku’s trademark enthusiasm and clarity, this epic and engaging journey is the story of The God Equation.
